Iraq’s Nujaba Threatens to Smash ‘Israeli’, US Facilities in Kurdistan

By Staff, Agencies

In an unprecedented move, Iraqi resistance group Hezbollah Nujaba Movement threatened to target ‘Israeli’ positions and US military bases in the country’s northern Kurdistan region.

In a statement on Monday, Nujaba Secretary General Akram al-Kaabi warned about launching an offensive on the ‘Israeli’ and American installations in an area controlled by Masoud Barzani-led Kurdistan Democratic Party [KDP].

"By hosting the US military bases and the positions of the [‘Israeli’] spy agency Mossad, leaders of the Iraqi Kurdistan region have not only compromised the security of the northern Iraqi people but have also turned the area, infested with spies and occupying forces, into a legitimate target for Iraqi resistance groups," the statement read.

Sabereen News, the media conglomerate affiliated with the resistance factions in Iraq, published the statement, reporting that Nujaba's foreign relations unit has threatened Barzani, the veteran Kurdish politician who has been at the helm of KDP since 1979.

KDP has not yet reacted to the statement issued by Nujaba.

Last December, Iraqi lawmaker Ali al-Fatlawi said it would be legitimate for the country’s anti-terror resistance groups, which are part of the Popular Mobilization Units [PMU] or Hashd al-Sha’abi, to force US-led military forces to withdraw from the Arab country.

He said the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq was non-negotiable, especially as former Iraqi premier Adel Abdul-Mahdi had asked for it and the parliament also passed a resolution calling for the full withdrawal of the occupying forces.

After Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guard [IRG] in mid-March launched a strike on Mossad’s secret facility in Erbil, the capital of Iraq’s Kurdistan region, al-Kaabi said the fact that the region “provides Mossad agents with refuge” makes it legitimate for any party to target the “Zionist spies.”

The Erbil operation targeted the “den of the Zionists” who have “taken refuge with a famous family to carry out their mercenary operations,” he said, referring to the Barzani family, which has dominated Iraqi Kurdistan's politics for decades.

In leaked audio in late March, Barzani had warned of a potential attack on Iraqi resistance groups by armed forces affiliated to the Iraqi Kurdistan region, over a phone call with Mohammed al-Halbousi, Iraq's Parliament Speaker.